Milestones PF UM

In the late 1950s, the first initiatives for the establishment of faculties emerged in Maribor.

The Elaborate on the Establishment of Colleges in Maribor in years 1958/1959. One of the proposed colleges was the College of Law (Višja pravna šola, VPŠ). The starting of the teaching process at VPŠ was planned for the academic year 1960/1961;

Minutes of the meeting of the Law Society Maribor of 9 December 1959 in which the members of the society supported the idea of establishing VPŠ;

On 7 January 1960, the newspaper Večer published on the fourth page an interview with France Venturini, the president of the District Court of Maribor and future director of VPŠ, titled "Pravna fakulteta v Mariboru?" ("The Law Faculty in Maribor?");

A special commission was formed for the establishment of VPŠ within the general commission for the establishment of higher education in Maribor. The commission consisted of: France Venturini, the president of the District Court of Maribor, Tone Skobir, a district prosecutor in Maribor, Pavel Žmavec, the secretary of the people's committee, Janez Nemec Ph.D., a professor in the College of Commerce and Mirko Žlender, an attorney in Maribor;

On 23 June 1960, the Chamber of the Republic of the People's Assembly of LRS adopted the Act on the College of Law (Official Gazette of LRS, No. 23-135/60 of 7 July 1960);

Two days after the Act was published in the Official Gazette of LRS, the Commission launched a call and published the requirements for enrolment in the study at VPŠ in Maribor. 372 candidates applied, out of which only 28 applied for full-time study. These were the first students of VPŠ;

When preparing and administering the enrolment, the commission developed a selection of teaching staff. On 16 September 1960, the Executive Council of LRS adopted a decision on the appointment of France Venturini as the director of VPŠ;

The first lectures at VPŠ were organized and carried out on 17 October 1960. Lectures at VPŠ took place within the area of 295 m2 in the current building of the Faculty of Law in Mladinska ulica 9, in the right part of the ground floor with two lecture rooms, two offices and two rooms for the secretariat, which in the beginning also held a library with approximately 200 books, mostly textbooks, donated by the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana;

Throughout its existence, VPŠ dedicated particular attention particularly to the part-time studies. The number of part-time students exceeded the number of full-time students until the end of the 1990s. For that reason, lectures at VPŠ were in the early years primarily organized in the afternoon, between 16:00 and 20:00. The great commitment of the teaching staff of VPŠ to part-time studies, at numerous locations in Slovenia (PO, KR, CE, LJ, SG, MS), required considerable efforts in the implementation of lectures for part-time students, resulting in a lesser focus on scientific research. Nevertheless, their efforts were recognized by business and social practice, leading to a show of support by the economic sector for the later transformation of VPŠ into the High School of Law;

Discussions about the existence of higher education have demonstrated the usefulness of colleges in Maribor and led to ideas about transforming them into faculties. The first step in the process of transition to a higher level was achieved by obtaining the right of colleges to carry out the research work. VPŠ was the third college in Slovenia to gain the right to perform the research work following the amendment of the Higher Education Act and its constitutional documents. A result were new opportunities for employment of new staff and better quality of pedagogical activities;

In 1974, a Self-management agreement between VPŠ and the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana on mutual relations and further cooperation was signed by the deans of both institutions, which further strengthened bilateral cooperation. VPŠ also cooperated with faculties in ZG, BG, NS, SK and SA, as well as with law faculties in Marburg am Lahn, Bayreuth, Hamburg, Lyon and others. The teachers of VPŠ gained additional professional qualifications at these and other law faculties abroad;

On the 15th anniversary of its existence (the year 1976), VPŠ moved to the building in Žitna ulica 15 and thus acquired better working conditions. The director, Vanek Šiftar Ph.D., prepared a programme for school's development (transformation into the High School of Law), which was based on the idea that lawyers-economists or economists-lawyers would be educated in Maribor to meet the demand in the field of economy;

In 1978, the Elaborate on the Transformation of the College of Law into the High School of Law in Maribor was prepared under the guidance of Šime Ivanjko Ph.D.. It was supported by the Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia and positively evaluated by the Executive Council of the Assembly of SRS for the meeting of the Assembly of SRS. However, the Secretariat of SRS for Judiciary, Organization of Administration and Budget estimated that there were already enough lawyers in SRS, and all efforts were suspended by the end of the year;

In 1980, the third dean, Ivan Justin MSc, sent to the Educational Community of Slovenia the Decision of Council of VPŠ on the transformation of VPŠ into the High School of Law, which was to be included in the Development Plan for the period until 1983, but the proposal was never actually included in the plan;

The pedagogical staff started to focus more intensively on their research work and their education. The consequence of these activities was the elaborate Development of Legal Studies at the University of Maribor, which was managed by the rector Dane Melavc Ph.D.;

The Council of the University of Maribor adopted the Elaborate on Legal Studies and sent it to the Executive Council of the Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, which on the 10 September 1990 issues the Draft Law on the Establishment of the High School of Law in Maribor. The proposal was opposed by some delegates and a representative of the University of Edvard Kardelj in Ljubljana;

The fifteen-year long endeavours of the employees and students of VPŠ, University of Maribor, wider Maribor community and socio-political actors finally led to the decision of the Slovenian Parliament of 27 September 1990 on the transformation of VPŠ into the High School of Law: the Act on the High School of Law in Maribor was adopted by the Assembly of SRS (Official Gazette no. 35 of 5 October 1990) and the High School of Law was established, which took over all educational, material and other rights and obligations of VPŠ in Maribor;

The study at the High School of Law started on 1 October 1991 with 242 full-time and 69 part-time students. After having obtained a diploma, a graduate was entitled to sit the state legal exam. In accordance with guidelines determined in the Elaborate, the study programme was oriented primarily towards the study of business law;

The High School of Law organised the first consultation on Medicine and Law in cooperation with the Medical and Law Society of Maribor in 1991. In the year 2016, the faculty hosted the 25th annual meeting;

In 1992, the first consultation CORPORATE ENTITIES IN THE MARKET took place. It was first organised in Rogaška Slatina, but has in recent years been moved to Portorož;

Immediately after the High School of Law was established, steps were taken to transform the High school of Law into the faculty. On 7 June 1993, the National Assembly adopted the Act Amending the Act on the Establishment of the High School of Law in Maribor, according to which the latter was renamed as the Faculty of Law in Maribor (Official Gazette of RS, no.32/93). In accordance with the amended Act, the Faculty of Law in Maribor continued the study programme of the High School of Law and had since 1993 carried out in-depth legal studies and developed scientific research activity;

In 1993, the first graduate of the High School of Law, Rajko Knez, finished its study under the mentorship of Miroslava Geč Korošec Ph.D.. In the same year, the High School of Law started with the Masters study programme focused in the field of Company Law under the leadership of Šime Ivanjko Ph.D.;

The first candidate to gain the title of Doctor of Science was Franci Avsec, who defended his doctoral dissertation, written under the mentorship of Ludvik Toplak Ph.D., in December 1995;

After that, Rajko Knez became the first graduate of the Master Study Programme Company Law and graduated under the mentorship of Miroslava Geč Korošec Ph.D., in October 1996. In the same year, a Master Study Programme in the field of International Law lead by Silvo Devetak Ph.D. started operating;

In the following years, two other Master Study Programmes were started. First, in 1997, the programme in the field of financial law, led by Franc Pernek Ph.D. and Bojan Škof Ph.D,, after the year 2004. Second, in 2000, the programme in the field of Labour Law and Law of Social Security. lead by Mitja Novak Ph.D.;

The year 2001 was a big year for the faculty’s building. The attic of the faculty was renovated, and four new lecture halls and eight offices were added;

In 2002, the faculty began with the Master Study Programme in the field of EU Company Law under the leadership of Rajko Knez Ph.D.;

The years from 2005 to 2009 were filled with work on the faculty space. First, in 2005, the basement was renovated and 3 seminar rooms and a room for graduating was added to the faculty. Then, in 2006, a crucial change was made – the faculty’s library was altogether remodelled and modernized. These changes were followed by the complete renovations of the entire ground floor of the faculty in 2008 and the entirely new façade, roofing and all the fences in 2009;

In the last 15 years, the Faculty of Law systematically organized postgraduate studies - scientific master's study programmes and doctoral study programme, until the Higher Education Act, which implemented the Bologna declaration, prevented the enrollment of scientific masters and previous doctoral studies after 2008;

In the academic year 2009/2010, the Faculty of Law carried out Bologna study programmes for the first time, namely the first cycle University study programme Law, the second cycle Master’s study programme Law and the third cycle Doctoral study programme Law;

The Faculty of Law was accredited for additional 7 years in March 2015. The first cycle University study programme Law and the second cycle Master’s study programme Law are accredited until September 2022.